Growing Girl
by Sheena-X-Zelos
Summary: Shikamaru is starting to see Ino in a whole new light: How she is growing and how his feelings for her are growing as well...
1. Chapter 1

It was a gorgeous warm day. There were tiny clouds in the sky gently floating along the pale blue. The breeze was soft and cool , perfectly complementing the summer's warmth. The grass was looking lush and green and it was lightly moving back and forth with the jovial winds.

Shikamaru Nara of team ten, was laying on the hillside in the shade of a tree enjoying the peace and quiet of the calm summer's day. Being his laid-back self he was half dozing off in the comfortable shade of the tree when all of a sudden...

"Shikamaru! Shikamaru! I knew you'd be here!"

"sigh" sight Shikamaru exaggerating it a little.

It was Ino Yamanaka, the blonde haired purple wearing genin of team ten, and Shikamaru's teammate. She was running up the hillside, one arm waving high in the air calling out to Shikamaru. Shikamaru opened one eye to catch a glimpse of Ino.

"What do you want Ino? What are you wearing?"

Shikamaru was acting a little more interested now. He had never seen Ino wear and outfit like that before. The outfit looked almost like the one she usulay dressed up in except this one was a tighter fit on top and the usualy wide and baggy collar was transformed into two straps tied around her neck making it into a halter top.

"What this? Oh this is just something new I tried out. Since it's a warm day and all I thought I'd wear something different for a change. Plus, I am getting older so..."

"Right, so why are you here?"

"Heh, heh... they're having a two for one sale at the ramen shop, I just thought I'd let you know."

"Well thanks I guess..."

"You're not gonna go?"

"Don't you have Sasuke to chase around or something?"

"Well if you're gonna be like that then I won't stay here then! If you want me to so bad, I will go chase around Sasuke, he's cuter than you anyway!"

"..."

Ino let out and exasperated noise and stormed off. Shikamaru closed his eyes and tried to relax in the shade once again but for some reason, anytime he would close his eyes the image he would see was Ino in her new outfit. Then when he started to think about it he remembered the last words that she had said before leaving:

"I will go chase around Sasuke! He's cuter than you anyway!"

The words echoed in his head. His usually cool demeanor was for some reason disturbed by these words. He twisted and turned trying to enjoy the most perfect weather he had ever seen or lived in his life yet he still couldn't forget those words. He was used to all the girls chasing around Sasuke and saying how cute he was and he really could have cared less what those girls said. But for some reason, the words that Ino said to him, even thought they weren't as insulting as something else could have been, left a cold chill down his spine and so the perfect napping weather was ruined for him.

The dark haired shinobi got up and left 10 minutes later. He decided to take a walk in town. Down the crouded streets of the Leaf village he walked but then he noticed that the streets weren't as crowded as they usually were. He wondered where everyone could have gotten to. Then he turned the corner and it hit him.

"Two for one! Two for one? Yeah it's two for one!"

"I never knew how many ramen freaks there were in this village..." said Shikamaru to himself. He wanted to get out of the ramenaniac crowed so he sped up his walk a little bit until he hit another boom.

"Oh Sasuke! You look so cute today!"

Shikamaru's stomach turned and then flopped. He hid behind a wall and watched Ino chase the ignorant Sasuke down the street. He watched them until they both disapeared. The young ninja slid down the wall with a light plop when he hit the ground. He sat there in the solitary alley until a thought crossed his mind:

Wait a minute! What am I doing? Why am I hiding from people acting all jumpy? This isn't me...sigh what's wrong with me?

With that, Shikamaru decided to forget about the previous events and go back to his house. It took him almost two hours to walk back at the pace he was going, but then when he got to his house, he didn't feel like being there anymore so he decided to walk back. He was wandering around aimlessly for hours until he found himself back at the same tree he was at before. By this time, the sun was setting and it was gradualy getting darker. Shikamaru sat back down underneath the tree to try and clear his head, which was still caught up in the events of the morning. He started to think about Ino, her new outfit, and what she had said to him that day. Then he realized that this was hardly like him and he yelled out:

"Gah! What is wrong with me?"

"Maybe the fact that you're so jealous..."

"Huh?"

Shikamaru turned and looked around the trunk of the tree. He had no idea that Ino had been sitting there.

"Ino! W-what are you doing here?" said Shikamaru trying to sound calm.

"I thought that you'd come back here... and you did..."

"Huh?"

"Hm." she looked away from Shikamaru "I kind of felt bad for saying what I said to you this morning. I wanted to apologize."

She turned her head and looked up. The sun was set by now and the big full moon was now suspended in the navy blue sky. Shikamaru gazed at Ino. He looked at her platinum blonde hair shaded from the moon, making it look paler than usual. He looked at her bangs gently floating in front of her face by the gentle late night breeze. He gazed at the pale moonlit skin on her face which looked flawless. Then she turned her head and her big pale blue eyes met Shikamaru's dark narrow ones.

"Shikamaru?" she asked softly. Shikamaru blushed at the calmness and softness of her voice, and a good thing a cloud passed by the moon at that moment so Ino couldn't see him red in the face.

"Um..." said Shikamaru trying to find his voice. " Yeah well, I accept your apology"

"I'm glad" she flased him a gentle smile. The moon had come back out from it's fluffy hiding place and now shown directly and brightly over the two genin teammates, like a spotlight.

Shikamaru relaxed up against the tree as did Ino. They both sat there gazing up at the sky, silently, but in Shikamaru's head it was anything but silent:

What's wrong with me? What's this knot in my stomach? I never had a problem sitting beside Ino before. And it definantly never made me this sick. Well it couldn't be her smell, she smells so sweet and she loo... wait! No, no don't tell me... I couldn't possibly he looked at Ino ...have a thing for her? he blushed and turned away.

"What's wrong Shikamru?" asked Ino noticing that her teammate looked uncomfortable.

"Nothing!" replied Shikamaru nervoulsy jumping up on his feet and being flustered. "I just realized that it was getting late is all and I um... have to get going home, I'll see you at training tomorrow, bye Ino!"

"Shikamru..."

The dark haired shinobi ran down the hillside until he was out of Ino's sight. Then he stopped running and walked the rest of the way home...

(TO BE CONTINUED...)


	2. Chapter 2

The next day was definanatly not as perfect as the day before. The heat was muggy and humid and there wasn't a breeze to be found. The heat was like a sticky wall that you would hit every time that you'd walk.

Team ten had finished training by noon due to the heat. The Jounin Asuma had left to go get cigarettes and Chouji had went home for lunch. Shikamaru had taken the time off to go back to the tree and try to make some comfort in the shade even though it still felt like he was wearing a wool blanket in a desert.

Under the tree, Shikamaru was yawning lazily when all of a sudden…

"Shikamaru! Shikamaru! I knew you'd be here!"

"You again?" said Shikamaru having a serious deja-vous from the previous day.

"I won't let a comment like that put me in a bad moon today, it's way too hot which is why I was wondering if you wanted to go swimming with me?"

"At the lake?"

"Duh!"

Shikamaru gave it some thought. It was only logical to go swimming on a hot day so he agreed. Ino said that she'd meet him there so she took off. Shikamaru went and got his stuff and headed to the lake. He got to the lake first.

For some reason, it was a little cooler at the lake, probably the breeze off the water. The sun was shining on the lake and the water looked fresh and clear. The forest around the lake was as green as ever and the noon sun was high in the sky. Shikamaru noticed that he was the only person there until…

"Boo! Shikamaru!"

Shikamaru wasn't phased by the so-called surprise but he certainly was phased when he turned around.

"Ino! You …"

Right there infront of his eyes was a purple bikini clad Ino. Shikamaru started blushing like crazy although Ino didn't notice for she was already running to jump in the water. Shikamaru didn't know what to think. The last time he had ever seen Ino in a bathing suit was when she wore a less revealing full-piece and she wasn't this curvy. With the combination of her blonde hair and bikini she was the equivalent of Naruto's "Sexy no Jutsu"! There were hardly any words to describe how Shikamaru was feeling. His heart was racing, his face was blood red and thoughts were running through his mind so fast that he couldn't keep up.

"Shikamaru! I invited you to go swimming not sitting! Come on in, the water is perfect!"

He tried to get up and walk over to the water but for some reason his feet froze and was unable to move.

"Fine! If you won't come in on your own, I'll just have to come and get you!"

"Huh?" said Shikamaru coming to his senses, but it was too late, Ino was already running after him to push him in the lake, and so she did.

"Heh, heh! See! I told you the water was great!"

"Um… yeah…"

"Oh come on Shikamaru ! Let's have some fun!"

"Uh…"

And before Shikamaru could say another word Ino had him under the water and was splashing him and everything. They were both having a greta time for hours.

Around five o'clock they got out of the water. They were laying on the shore still in swimsuits and water soaked. Then it hit Shikamaru: I was playing with bikini Ino in the water for four and a half hours! He started to blush but it was interrupted by…

"Wasn't that fun Shikamaru? We should do this more often, what do you think?"

"Um… uh… yeah."

"Hmph!" Ino got up.

"Ino what's wrong?"

"You don't seem very thrilled!"

"Ino I… no, I didn't mean for it to sound like that. I had a great time with you today"

"You did?"

"Yeah I did… um, thanks for spending the day with me" he looked down and blushed.

"I'm glad" she flashed that same gentle smile that made Shikamaru blush even more. She sat back down beside the dark haired Shinobi. "you seemed just so uncomfortable around me lately and so it's good to see that you're back to normal. Was there a reason for that?"

"Uh…" Shikamaru was at a loss for words. Sure he knew why he was uncomfortable but he didn't want to tell Ino that…

"See! There you go being all uncomfortable around me again! What's wrong with me!"

"What's wrong with you? What's wrong with me? First you come up with this tight shirt on! You chase around Sasuke even more and now you're wearing a bikini! You… you're growing up too fast for me. I just don't know how to think about you anymore!"

"What do you mean, don't know how to think about me…"

"Nothing…"

"What?"

"I was answering your first question… there is definantly nothing wrong with you. You are a growing girl, but for some reason you seem to be doing it so flawlessly and I… I…"

"Oh, Shikamaru…"

"Guys! There you are!"

"Huh!" exclaimed Ino and Shikamru at the same time. It was Chouji.

"Guys! Your parents are looking for you!"

"Oh yeah it's supper time!" said Ino.

"Crap, you're right!" said Shikamaru getting up. "I'll see you later Ino…"

"Okay!"

And with that the two genin went off in separate directions to go home for super…


	3. Chapter 3

The next day was just as humid as the last if not more. Today the sky was darkening with grey clouds, which gave all the more reason for Shikamaru to go outside and watch them. He went back to his usual hillside tree.

"I knew you'd be here…"

"Huh?" said Shikamaru looking around the tree trunk. It was Ino once again. "Ino, um… hi"

"Hello Shikamaru…"

There was an awkward silence that fell between the two.

"Finish it…" said Ino.

"Huh?" replied Shikamaru.

"Finish what you were saying to me yesterday. And you what…"

Again, Shikamaru knew what he wanted to say, but he couldn't possibly say it…

"I… I…"

The clouds started to roll in and it got even darker. Ino could see that Shikamaru was blushing hard and was having a tough time saying what he wanted to say.

"Please tell me Shikamaru… I want to know…"

"Listen, it may have only really hit me like two days ago, I think it's always kind of been there all along for me but Ino… I…"

The thunder crashed and the rain started to poor. It sent a chill down both their spines but they didn't care after that.

"Ino, I… really, really care about you… a lot."

"Oh Shikamaru!"

Ino threw her arms around Shikamaru's neck. The dark haired Shinobi was stunned. He had no idea how to react to the sudden embrace.

"Ino? But I thought… what about…"

"Sasuke? Do you know where he was going that day I was following him?"

"No…"

"He was going to Naruto's house, and well… you don't wanna know why…"

"Uh…"

"Heh, heh… shut up Shikamaru."

And with that, Ino gently kissed Shikamaru's lips. Together finaly, alone in the rain, unaware of what crazy thing they might get into next…

!THE END!

S.Z note: lol I'm really proud that I've actually finished something for once! I don't know how good this story is or what, but I had fun making it and it's actually finished! Lol. Anyway, I hope you guys have enjoyed this story! Thanks for reading!


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